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Sociology 101
CLEP study guide definitions
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Achieved Status | A position in society and/or group that is assumed largely through one's own doings or efforts. |
Aggregate | A number of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time. |
Ascribes Status | A position in society and/or group that is automatically conferred on a person. |
Association | A type of relationship formed on the basis of an accommodation of interests of on the basis of an agreement. |
Audience | A type of passive crowd that is both oriented and responding to a social situation in a relatively orderly and predictable way. |
Bureaucracy | A rationally designed organization model whose goal is to perform complex tasks as efficiently as possible. |
Causal Relationship | Exists when a change in one variable causes or forces a change in the other. |
Characteristic Institution | The basis organization of society. |
Charismatic Authority | Authority based on the extraordinary, uncanny, and supernatural powers or abilities that have been associated with a particular person. |
Class | A group of people who have in common a certain relationship to the means of production. |
Communal Relationship | A relationship that is formed on the basis of the subjective feelings of the party. |
Conflict Paradigm | View of society as being characterized by conflict and inequality. |
Conflict Theory | A view of the social world that questions how factors are associated with an unequal distribution of socially valued goods. |
Contagion theory | Theory developed by Gustave Lebon. Crowds have a powerful influence. |
Content Analysis | The quantitive or qualitive techniques employed to describe the contents of the materials. |
Convergence Theory | A theory that individuals posses particular motivations. |
Counterculture | Values, beliefs, and lifestyles that do not conform to the norm. |
Craze | Collective behavior to have something because everyone else does. |
Cultural Relativism | Social scientists efforts to be objective in their observations. |
Deductive Theory | Proceeds from general ideas, knowledge, or understanding of the social world. |
Division of Labor | The manner in which work is divided among individuals. |
Dyad | The social relationship of two people in which either member's departure destroys the group. |
Emergent norm Theory | Theory developed by Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian. |
Endogamy | Marriage within specific groups. |
Ethnocentrism | Attitude that one culture and values are the only true ones. |
Exogamy | Marriage outside specific groups. |
Folkways | The usual customs and conventions of everyday life. |
Gemeinschaft | Ferdinand Tonnies. Small communities characterized by tradition |
Gesellschaft | Ferdinand Tonnies. Contractual relationships of a voluntary nature of limited duration and quality. |
Grand Theory | Talcott Parsons. Organization of concepts of society as a stable system of interrelated parts. |
Humanistic | Approach that stresses self-realization, full development of a cultivated personality, and improvement of the human condition. |
Independent variable | A variable that influences another variable. |
Inductive theory | General conclusions are inferred through a process of reasoning. |
In groups | Groups towards which a person feels he or she belongs. |
Interaction Process Analysis | Robert Bales. Classifying ongoing activity in small groups. |
Interpretive Theory | Studies the processes whereby human beings attach meaning to their lives. |
Iron Law of Oligarchy | Robert Michels. Small number of specialists hold sway over an organization. |
Kinship | Symbolic meaning or value to actual or imagined blood ties. |
Mass Hysteria | A collective emotional response to tensions and anxiety in a group. |
Master Status | The status with which the person is most identified. |
Monogamy | Having one spouse at a time. |
Mores | Strong ethical norms of a society. |
Neolocality | When newlyweds live in a new or separate residence. |
Out groups | Groups towards which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition. |
Parkinsons Law | Belief that in any bureaucratic organization "work expands to fill time available for it's completion." |
Participant Observation | Observation by a researcher who is involved in the experiment. |
Peter Principle | Belief that in any hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. |
Post industrial Societies | Societies in which information is created, processed, and stored. |
Primary Deviance | Behavior violating a norm |
Primary Sector | Involved in the extraction of raw materials and natural resources. |
Primary Socialization | The initial socialization a child receives that makes them part of society |
The visceral sphere capable of being understood and altered. | Profane. |
Qualitive Method | Research method that relies on personal observation to explain behavior. |
Quantitive Method | Research method that makes us use mathematical equations and statistical thinking to solve behavior. |
Rational legal Authority | Authority stemming from within the frameworks of a body of laws that have been dully enacted. |
Resocialization | Discarding behavioral practices and adopting new ones as a way of life. |
Sociology | The science that studies societies, social groups, and the relationships between people. |
Sociometry | J.L. Moreno. Interaction in small groups. |
Stratified Sampling | A type of sampling that uses the differences already in society. |
Totalitarian | A form of government where there is not a limit for authority. |